In the first stages of this process, I have looked at a bunch of banned and challenged books not only to find a case to study but to look at why books get banned. My partner and I are gathering information about the book Maurice by E.M. Forster because it was banned in the United Kingdom and some places in the U.S. I read this book a few years ago and I have always been intrigued by its origins and its publication. Luckily, my case mate, Sophia, although she hasn’t read it, finds the story interesting as well. In looking for its banning in the U.S., I have found an instance of the book being taken from students while they were reading it at a school in New Hampshire. We are looking for more instances of it being banned in the states but the banning of it in the U.K. interests me the most. A lot of publishers wanting to change the story in order for it to be publishable shows a new kind of censorship where the writers are censored in order to even be able to make money off of their work. There are a lot of connections we can make to other cases. This book being written in the early 20th century but not being published until the late 20th century gives us opportunity to study the time period and the circumstances that wouldn’t allow for this story to be published. As we gather more information we will find people to interview and get a better sense of where we are going with this project.
As for now, I do not know where to look for finding more information. I have been to the American Library Association’s website and have not found out anything on Maurice. I have done a google search on the books banning and have found a lot of articles on it but not specific examples. I will do a more in depth search in order to find out more information.
On Wednesday, we are going to meet with the University of Mary Washington’s librarian in the hopes that they will be able to help us figure out what our next move should be.